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For all the hosannas he elicited, Steve Jobs was never named Time magazine's Person of the Year, a snub that rankled him considerably. Now that he's dead, he may finally win the distinction that eluded him in life.

The Apple visionary's name was mentioned throughout a debate Time held Tuesday to discuss POY possibilities, with even those who favored other candidates conceding that he'd make a logical choice. NBC anchor Brian Williams championed Jobs for the cover of the annual year-end issue. "Not only did he change the world, but he made us think that something was possible -- that you could look at a piece of plastic or glass and move your finger and something would happen," he said.

Celebrity chef Mario Batali seemed undecided, but included Jobs on his short list, along with food writer Michael Pollan and the banking industry (about which, more later). "He's changed the way people think," Batali said of Jobs. "Smart phone, cell phone photographic capability has changed the world as much as the Bible has."

Comedian Seth Meyers, host of "Saturday Night Live's" "Weekend Update," suggested "angry people" from Tahrir Square to Zucotti Park as a sort of generic Person of the Year, and pointed out that it was hardly Jobs's greatest year, with no new revolutionary products from Apple. "Steve Jobs would be a lifetime achievement award," he said.

But Williams countered that the advances in communications technology that Jobs pushed underlay the ability of those angry people to make themselves heard. "Devices have been absolutely critical to the [Occupy Wall Street] movement as it continues from New York to Oakland."

Time's managing editor, Richard Stengel, pointed out that Jobs, if selected, would be the first non-living person named Person of the Year. Previous Persons of the Year have included categories of people such as "The Whistleblowers" and a couple inanimate objects. One of those objects was The Computer, which was the 1982 honoree.

As Walter Isaacson tells it in his new biography, Jobs believed the magazine's editors had chosen him to be the POY after granting extensive interviews to writer Michael Moritz, and was furious when the issue came out. He blamed Moritz for writing what he saw as a harsh, gossipy story that persuaded Time's editors to go with a "Machine of the Year" instead. The editors involved told Isaacson Jobs was wrong about that, however.

Related: At the same debate, Batali said the banking industry is "as good as Stalin or Hitler" when it comes to causing suffering in the world. See what he said when I asked him to explain that comparison.